Andante festivo

While the occasion for the composition of the Andante festivo – the 25th anniversary of a Finnish plywood mill – is almost comically irrelevant, its date is seriously significant. It was written in 1922 at the height of Sibelius’s maturity, at much the same time as the great Sixth Symphony and not long before the enigmatic Seventh. Scored originally for string quartet, it is not so much a birthday celebration as an anthem – an inspiration more appropriate to a ceremony like the opening of the 1939 World Fair in New York, for which Sibelius made the present arrangement for strings (and optional timpani) or, indeed, the composer’s funeral in 1957. British ears will be intrigued by the occasional near echo of our national anthem as the expressive main theme, which briefly gives way to another idea in the middle, is carried on devout string harmonies towards a solemn drumroll at the end (if, that is, the conductor decides to take the timpani option).

Gerald Larner ©2007